Yoga traces its origins to ancient India, yet transcends cultural boundaries with practices relevant to contemporary life, including postures, breathing, chant and meditation.
The word "yoga" is rich in meaning, its root translation being "to link" -- body, breath, mind and spirit. The first definition given in Patanjali's "yoga sutra" suggests yoga deals primarily with the mind through developing one's ability to focus in a chosen direction. Yoga also suggests the possibility of "going somewhere you haven't been before." Yoga practice often begins with physical postures, linked with breath, which can serve to clean our systems, to clear the mind of its usual clutter, to help us unwind and be open to attentiveness in the moment. With practice and over time, one can move towards balance, come closer to our deeper selves and tap into a sense of peace.
This approach to yoga comes directly through TKV Desikachar and his father T. Krishnamacharya (1888-1989), who is the source of many well known schools of yoga today, notably Iyengar and Ashtanga, whose founders studied with Krishnamacharya in their youth. Krishnamacharya opened the way for women (teaching European Indra Devi in the 1930s) to practice yoga and evolved specific ways of making yoga relevant to the contemporary world.
The teaching adapts practice to the individual, according to needs and circumstances, respecting the starting point of each person and moving gradually in an appropriate direction.
Yoga practice cultivates the links between body, breath and mind. With breath as the guiding principle, the teaching explores the dynamics of movement between poses as well as the still pose. Postures (asana) can be a helpful way into this teaching which also addresses energy, mind and spirit through breathing (pranayama), study of philosophy in relation to daily life, chanting and meditation.
Yoga can become a personal practice, drawing on a variety of tools, and so helping to reduce suffering from problems such as stress, chronic pain, shortness of breath, insomnia and fatigue; or it may serve to counter dysfunctional movement patterns and reduce the effects of injuries. Yoga can enable a person of any age to lead an active life more fully.Read more about this approach in The Heart of Yoga, and Health, Healing and Beyond, by TKV Desikachar.
Please read the article "What is Viniyoga?" by Rosemary Jeanes Antze.
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